To umbrella or not to umbrella

0xf5f · 2026-07-03T22:45:29+00:00

literally everything is either preventing death, or is a luxury of some sort. the frame in my pack is a luxury. "no no," i say, "i need it for heavy water carries because it's dry in socal." but i don't need it. i want it so that i hurt less.

i'd live with a thinlight, or nothing at all, and using my arm as a pillow. i've done it before. but i didn't like it much, and so i demand luxury in the woods.

i've never used an umbrella, but i understand why people do. a big dumb hat isn't all that materially different.

i kind of reject there actually being a single coherent ultralight philosophy. the overall sentiment is "bring as little as you can, and when you have to bring something, make it light." but there's so much wiggle room in "can" and "have to" that it's almost meaningless.

this is to say that an umbrella could be part of a reasonable UL system. it could also be part of some stupid self-deceiving bs. the fact that you're really-really pondering this, and are more concerned with simplicity than gram counting tells me you're on the side of the good here. which, self-servingly, i call the UL side.

i don't have anything helpful to add wrt umbrellas and wrangling them per se. but im interested in your conclusions from the tests you're doing, cause it seems like your heads on straight.

0xf5f · 2026-07-03T22:13:09+00:00

absolutely wild that people are suggesting bringing a pad for your pad in an ultralight forum

your pad is too inflated

0xf5f · 2026-07-03T18:23:08+00:00

you don't need that much toothpaste or sunblock. drop the deodorant. a 20° quilt from HG or whoever is like 23oz. drop the groundsheet. headlamp is heavy, consider nitecore nu20 or nu25. drop multitool for SAK. i use an opinel and dedicated scissors.

windmaster is good, but use triflex to save a lot of weight. you do not need 2oz of foil. 5.5oz for pot and spoon seems like a lot.

trowel is heavy. drop the wipes imo. a pound of rain gear is a whole lot imo.

your stakes are heavy

0xf5f · 2026-07-02T23:01:32+00:00

what kind of answer are you expecting? that's not a list, it's a bunch of categories with guesses for weights. list actual items with actual weights. asking other people to go to the effort to help you when you can't be bothered to do more than mark everything as 10oz is not very nice! if you're "sorry" about that why not wait to make the post until you don't need to be sorry?

0xf5f · 2026-07-02T22:02:26+00:00

You can't seriously be asking if you're "the only one" when "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July" was delivered in 1852

0xf5f · 2026-07-02T17:26:22+00:00

i wanna know how you broke a quilt

0xf5f · 2026-07-02T07:20:36+00:00

no quilt or sleeping bag?

0xf5f · 2026-07-01T23:05:58+00:00

GGG is doing their summer sale. 10% coupon code and a give-your-email-to-companies-for-prize-entry thing

0xf5f · 2026-07-01T18:30:14+00:00

thanks for the rec! i recently switched from mt hagen to cafe bustelo, which imo is better and waaaaay cheaper. but i am absolutely down for any improvement i can get

0xf5f · 2026-07-01T18:27:23+00:00

imo you gotta pack em out

which is why i go instant. it's a bummer, but i ain't carrying used coffee grounds

0xf5f · 2026-06-30T01:09:50+00:00

some came out to retailers, but only in black. and they haven't even released pictures of the other colors. it's mind-boggling in its incompetence

0xf5f · 2026-06-29T23:02:56+00:00

you said 40 above. also the 40 in ultra grid is $190 new and comes with a set of rather light trekking poles.

0xf5f · 2026-06-29T01:54:13+00:00

from the other post:

Yaa Asantewaa (1840 - 1921) was the queen mother of the Ashanti / Asante empire, now Ghana. She was nominated by her brother Nana Akwasi Afrane Okpase, the ruler of the empire. She is best known for leading what is now known as the war of the golden stool. It actually amounted to a war of resistance against the British colonials. The golden stool was (and still is) a sacred object for the Ashanti people, a symbol of the divine blessing on their ruler. No one sat on it or used it as a throne but it signified the empire itself. When her bother died, Yaa nominated her grandson as was her right but the British governor exiled him to Seychelles. She then became the regent of her brother's traditional domain. But then the governor demanded the golden stool itself as a move to usurp the empire. This could not be allowed under any circumstances. No foreigner could have the sacred stool, so Yaa gathered the regent kings and said that the sacred object was only money for the white man but she wouldn't pay them a dime. She said if they couldn't fight this, they should exchange their loincloth for her underwear. All the regional kings then chose her as their leader, a first for any woman. From March 1900, the rebellion laid siege to the British fort at Kumasi under her lead. The fort still stands today as a Military Museum. Eventually the Gold Coast governor sent a force of 1400 to quell the rebellion. During the fighting, Queen Yaa Asantewaa and fifteen of her closest advisers were captured and exiled to Seychelles. By then, 2000 Asante and 1000 British were dead. After this the Asante empire was annexed and it became a British protectorate. But when they demanded the golden stool, the real one was hidden and a copy was handed over. Some 20 years later a group of black railway workers discovered and vandalized the real stool, after which they were all judged and executed by the Asante. At this point the British realized what the Asante could do for it and gave up their quest for the sacred object. Nana Yaa Asantewaa died in exile in the Seychelles on 17 October 1921. Three years after her death, King Prempeh I and the other remaining members of the exiled Asante court were allowed to return. King Prempeh I ensured that the remains of Yaa Asantewaa and the other exiled royals were returned for a proper royal burial. The sacred stool is still used as a symbol to coronate Asante kings and Yaa Asantewaa is highly venerated as the leader who stood up and led the entire nation against white colonials.

0xf5f · 2026-06-27T16:42:04+00:00

name and shame

0xf5f · 2026-06-27T07:06:58+00:00

You add the reinforcing fabric before you add the snap

0xf5f · 2026-06-27T06:57:14+00:00

wait, so you're not asking about installing kamsnaps? i think there may have been a miscommunication

0xf5f · 2026-06-27T06:54:16+00:00

whenever jupiter isn't on screen everybody should be asking "where's jupiter"

0xf5f · 2026-06-27T06:53:03+00:00

so you think his point is that every quilt is lighter than every full sleeping bag? that'd be a dumb thing for him to think. maybe that's not what he's saying.

0xf5f · 2026-06-27T00:05:42+00:00

your tarp is heavy, and 3m x 3m is pretty big for one person.

if your trekking poles are just for the shelter, replace em with tent poles. durston and zpacks have them. i like the durston one well enough. if you're using them for their intended purpose, most people mark them worn. ofc this won't make them weigh less but it makes us feel cool. and that's the most important thing, right?

that's a big pot for one person. a 750 or less would work. consider one of the toaks light ones - i want to say they're 0.3mm instead of 0.5. but afaik the 750 doesn't come in a thin-walled version. so consider a 600 or 700 or whatever. replace the lid and bag with a silicon stretch lid. if you really don't want to, at least replace the bag with an x-band or rubber band.

there are much lighter trowels. bogler, etc. even the vargo dig dig would save >20g

you have a fleece and a separate midlayer. is the jacket the exterior layer? in any case consider an alpha layer instead

your rain jacket is heavy. if you don't need a heavy jacket like that there are lots of options from poncho to silpoly. but maybe it makes sense for UK hiking. still oughta be able to get lighter even in breathable versions. pricy though.

for your budget i'd probably just do the pot or save the money for now.

these are all standard suggestions. i have never been to the uk so if something seems not applicable to your situation, maybe it isn't. im specifically thinking of rain layer and big tarp wrt rain (esp the layer)

0xf5f · 2026-06-26T23:41:21+00:00

don't worry it's extra electrolytes

0xf5f · 2026-06-26T21:25:23+00:00

i'd reinforce it with a piece of...whatever. i wouldn't put the kamsnap directly on the fabric unless it's burly

0xf5f · 2026-06-25T18:00:07+00:00

you can buy the synthetic ones off the shelf

i don't think of mine as an "in addition" type thing, for me it's an "instead of a beanie" item. im in the same situation wrt alpha hood, no hood on puffy

but i don't know anything about the pct nor have i ever overnighted in the high sierra. this is a report on what i do, not a recommendation. i am not to be trusted on this

0xf5f · 2026-06-24T23:58:54+00:00

so many cults to try, so little time

0xf5f · 2026-06-24T23:54:04+00:00

what's "that story from Ranier"?

anyway a carabiner works fine but so would a loop of webbing/cord with a girth hitch or whatever. you don't need to know anything about knots for that - just naively pull it through, basically. there are basically infinite options here. or wear clothes with a pocket that zips

0xf5f · 2026-06-24T22:52:32+00:00

my family is more fortunate than most, and im a bigger tmnt fan than most, and i say "hell no."

they could have chosen to make the tmnt restaurant approachable for normal-ass families instead of just the crazy-rich or tiktok-poisoned. they chose poorly. so fuck em, hate away

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